Research - Representation of gender in Michael Buble videos

From looking at a range of different Michael Buble videos, I have come to the conclusion that he does not use a range of different narratives in his videos - if he uses any that is! Most of his videos do not have much of a narrative, and he tries to connote a narrative of itself through performance, representing him as being powerful and masculine through the art of solely performance. Most of the videos that i have chosen to research are upbeat and are mainly performance based, but when looking through my selection I have decided to look at one of his most recent videos 'Hollywood' which has a wide range of different characters being played, so this will juxtapose the other videos that i am researching.

Everything:
During this video, Buble uses both male and female actors; using a specific talent show styled video, which portrays each actor as equal from first view. The females that are used during this video connote to the audience the message that everybody is different, but that is not a bad thing - if anything its a compliment. This was represented through the women that was shown with a range of piecing on her face, using a mid shot of her singing into the microphone, showing her as equal, as though being seen from Buble's point of view - as in pervious shots we have seen him sitting down facing the acts, this could therefore make him of a lower status than the contestents through camera shots. Another representation that is seen during this video is an intertextual reference by one women, who is meant to be seen as a Marline Monroe type figure - this homage was connoted through costume, this being a signifier to the audience, making them recognise the reference to the female icon. I feel that this was done to show female asperation to idolise strong women such as Marline Monroe.

From this video the range of shots that are used it seems that all of the actors are as equal to Michael Buble, this is also shown when we see the shot of Buble taking photos of the actors – making the audience feel that he is wanting to remember this memory. There is one shot of a group of male actors which connotes trust and faith in each other as they are singing together as one group, but also because they are all looking at Michael Buble who is sitting in the chair facing them; giving him power and authority.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPUJIbXN0WY


Compared to Hollywood:
This video is mainly narrative based, but it tells the story following the lyrics of the song. The first main shot of a difference in the male gender would be the young teenage boy, on stage getting interviewed, the low angle shot of him makes it seem as though he has a high status because of the 'Screaming fans'. This is a specific Parody of the singer Justin Bieber, he is trying to represent the teenagers of music and how they become a different person on stage - thinking they are a bigger star than they are, shown through the relaxed posture and  having his hood up. Michael Buble is seen as a fan during this shot as it has something blocking his view on the left of the shot, this makes it seem as though he is in the crowd. The stereotypical female gender of being on a movie set with famous actors is shown during the next few shots, using a long shot of a man with two female 'clinging' on to him, proving who has the higher status, then an over the shoulder shot appears as he stumbles past Michael Buble, where he is looking down on him - this connotes that the male is conforming to the stereotypical drunk rocker connoting him as lower class to Buble. The dress of the females in this shot, are provocative and revealing - this can represent the stereotypical view of females in the company of a famous public, especially as they have matched their clothing to his - hippy styled clothing choices, connoting a care free attitude explaining the way that they are acting towards him. 

Research - Michael Buble Live

Yesterday i was able to catch 'This is Michael Buble' on tv which is a documentation of his work so far when he was touring the country and what it is like to be 'hanging out' with Michael Buble. I thought it was particularly interesting how he interacts with the audience and all of his fans, compared to his music videos where he more professional and serious when performing. Below is a clip from one of his concerts that was seen on the programme, and from this clip i thought that it showed the side to him that is the fun but loving which is portrayed in his music and lyrics.



Compared to his music video performances he is not shown as a fun and out going person whereas in this documentary; we are able to see the real him. Other than a few of his videos; such as the song Everything (which can be found below) - most of his material is jazzy and slow which connotes emotions that he might have dealt with. I found this interesting as it shows that he is always seen in a suit at his concerts as well, which is a recognition for the audience - relating back to his videos and his posters/CD covers and other merchandise. 


Everything - Michael Buble

Planning - Michael Buble Album Covers

Now that we have thought about how we are going to produce our music video, we have to now focus on what are ideas are for the other tasks; the cd and poster. Before we had our artist completely figured out, we looked at what Muse cd covers looked like and their similarities with the artist or other cd covers that they have produced. We now know that the song we are doing for our music video is 'Crazy Love' by Michael Buble, so it will be important for us to produce a cover that is similar to the music video that we make, not only the music video but also the research that we find out about from his other album covers - are there any similarities? what are the differences? what songs are on each and is this the reason for the difference? From looking at the cd covers, when constructing our own we will know whether or not we are conforming to our target audience or are we going to be attracting different sub groups.

One of the cd's that i looked at from the Michael Buble collection was 'Call Me Irresponsible' I noticed that some of the themes that he had used in his music videos were used in this album cover - such as the colour scheme of black, white and blue. This album cover is compared well to Michael Buble's video of 'Feeling good' where he is portrayed as a character such as James Bond, with the girls and the big fancy gadgets and cars that appear in the video. During this video the colours were not always bright alot of them were Black and white which is why it relates well with this cd cover, also the professionalism of Michael Buble in the suit, it shows the sleekness and clean cut feeling that the audience receive from his music. In contrast to the 'feeling good' video the image that is on the cover of this album, as he looks sad and disheartened - but this fits well with the songs that are found on this album as most of them are slow and about loosing or gaining love and faith.

Compared to the 'Call Me Irresponsible' there is a similar colour scheme, which connoted how Michael Buble is trying to make it recognisable to his target audience; they will be able to recognise it from a glance. On this album the songs are mainly upbeat and fun, which is why i think they have chosen to use a light blue background, over black. This also makes Michael Buble stand out, also making his audience recognise him - especially with the black suit, which is found on a range of different albums that he has brought out. The suit is fitting to a professional and serious vibe but due to the stance that he is carrying it makes the album look as though the music will be more jazzy and up tempo. Therefore proving he can sing a range of different styles; appealing to a large audience. 


This is all important to keep in mind when creating our own CD covers and posters, as we need to make it recognisable to the audience who the artist is and what type of music they will find on this album. It will help us when we decide what type of mood we want to connote to the audience; such as a sad or happy vibe, if it is going to be a fun and upbeat album or a mellow and jazzy album. Also we need to take into consideration what type of clothing we will have our actor in, which in the video for 'Crazy Love' is jeans and a top (more casual than any of his other videos) or if we are going to stick with his original image to keep it in the same style. We have decided that in the video he will be wearing a suit as the actors of the narrative will be in casual clothing, so we will probably use a suit for the overall CD cover image.

Planning - Costume

This shot is from Michael Buble's hit 'Cry Me a River' I thought this could show the type of costume that we want our actor to wear for our music video for 'Crazy Love'. Looking at a range of Michael Buble's videos; other than crazy love' he mainly always wears a suit, I think that this makes the video look for professional as well as it conforms with the other videos that he has made, so why change it? Also because we have a narrative in our 'Crazy Love' video with two actors in casual clothing, if we were to use casual clothing on our actor then there would not a complete divide between who is who. Another example of when Buble does this is in his 'Feeling Good' video, which relates to a 'Bond' theme, with the figures of the women and the action and suspicion of what he could be carrying in the case. But compared to his other videos, these are both very fast and dramatic songs, after looking at his other videos such as 'Home' and 'Everything' we see that he is still wearing a suit in both of them, so from this it made us question why chose not to wear a suit in 'Crazy Love' which is the main reason that we are having a suited actor.

Research - Prop List

As our a2 media production music video has to start being filmed soon, we have to consider what we are going to need and what is going to be crucial. 


 What Is Needed For Performance:


- Cameras, we are still not completely sure how many we are going to need, it will either be 2 or 3 as we want to film the perform from different angles and get a range of shots, to then play with when in the editing suite. This will help us as we will have more material and be able to edit parts that are not completely in sync and use different parts of the material to correct it. 


- Sim card, needed to have the music video video and stored. 


- White sheet, the background must be a plan colour, it will either be white, green or black and if it is a green screen we can change the background on the editing?  


- Lighting, simplistic and simple to emphasis the performance and not take focus away through different coloured lighting. 


- Mic and Stand, needed for performance; which will hopefully be in the pit, with the black curtains as a background?


- Costume, we have decided that we want our 'Michael Buble' to be in a suit, as it would then conform with all of his other videos, which will then show a contrast when we use material of the couple who will be in jeans and casual clothing.


- Blocks, to make a stage for the actor to stand on in the pit, otherwise it wont look right when we use high angle shots.


- Storyboard, what sequences we are going to use.


What Is Needed For Narrative:


- Actors, one boy and one girl (couple)


- Casual clothing, Jeans and a top with scarf for the girl, boy wearing jeans and a top with a jacket (with zip) that can be taken off and put on the girl.


- Autumn leaves, couple playing in the leaves throwing them in the air.


- Necklace, boy gives to the girl - symbolizing his love


- Umbrella, incase it rains


- Phones, girl receives text boy reads it and gets angry

Research - Posters

Also during his live performances he does not use a complicated background, but he uses a simple colour scheme, and the colours of the lights on the stage change depending on the lyrics of the songs. For Example; this video is 'Everything' and the lyrics are about love and showing the person that they mean the world to you, so they use a pink/red light on the stage, which connotes a relaxed and soft atmosphere.

"You're a falling star, You're the get away car.
You're the line in the sand when I go too far.
You're the swimming pool, on an August day.
And you're the perfect thing to say.

And you play it coy, but it's kinda cute.
Ah, When you smile at me you know exactly what you do.
Baby don't pretend, that you don't know it's true.
Cause you can see it when I look at you.

And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing.
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything."

Research - Audience For Music Video

To look at the different audiences i found the statistics of people that watch music videos from the music type of 'Indie'- Dear Maria, count me in by All Time Low. From this video we see a completely different side of music, they use a range of different narratives, with characters that are not as stereotypical as some that are found in most other music videos - the girl loves boy type. This music video attract a range of ages from 13 to 24, which is a smaller range compared to Michael Buble, this could be due to them being a newer band, or because they decided to aim their music at teenagers. The percentage of people watching this music video is mainly women, it is only age 13 to 17 year old males that are shown, this connotes how All Time Low appeal to the female audience more.


From looking at the different music video statistics, i am able to consider what type of audience my music video is going to be targeted at. I have chosen to aim my music video of 'Crazy Love' by Michael Buble at a mainly female audience of 14 to 17 year olds and 45 to 54 year old; i have chosen this because i found that he mainly aims at that target audience - shown in my statistics! 

Research - Audience For Music Videos

To look at the different types of people that watch Michael Buble video's i used youtube to calculate statistics on a few of his videos, this will show the range in age through to the person's gender. What i will take away from looking at this is the different type of audiences that my music video has to appeal to, i will then compare it with other music videos of a similar genre, as well as a music video from a completely different genre - this will allow me to see the contrast of the ages and types of audiences that the music videos appeal to!

These are statistics from the viewers on the 'Crazy Love' video which i am currently focusing on producing as my A2 production. From this data we see that the main audience that this video is having a hit with is people of the age 45 to 54 and 13 to 17 - both of which are female viewers, and in the male viewing statistic there is only on age range figure which is 45 to 54. This proves that in this specific video Michael Buble has a target audience of females in their late 40's and female teenagers. This could also be due to the type of music that he produces, it is mainly about love and romance; all found on his album, which could be one of the reasons why he is attracting more women to his music than men. On his albums he also covers songs by older jazz singers; songs such as 'Georgia on my Mind' and 'Fly me to the Moon'. This could be why it shows mainly women in their 40's as they have heard the original versions, and enjoy the 'twist' Michael Buble is put on it.


Feeling Good - Michael Buble

This music video is most popular all over the world by females only, youtube find that females are mainly the target audience. Statistics show that the female age range for the viewers of this video are from 13 through to 54, the largest amount of women viewers of this music video are sitting in the 45-54 age range. This could again be because they know the song, as it was orginally sang by Nina Simone.

Research - Michael Buble Albums

The different types of album covers that Michael Buble uses do not have a great similarity, other than as he is a solo artist he is always on the cover. In his earlier albums he uses a blue tint on his face and hands,which would usually be related with pain or being lost, this can therefore relate to the songs on these albums such as: Home, Lost and Me and Mrs Jones. This songs are about wanting to find the one he loves, being with that person but finding it hard to cope being away from them, and speaking of where they first met and where they are now. On both of these album he has a sad and thoughtful expression, representing the colours that are used on the covers, but from both of these there is a slight chance of a cultural code being used, as the same colour scheme and style which is reconizable for the audience that he is attracting.

Michael Buble

We looked at a range of different styles of songs, and decided that we were not going to use any of them, but found that they made us aware of other types of styles - such as jazz - that we had not looked into. After looking at Michael Buble's videos, we saw potential in using one of his songs due to them having more narrative in the lyrics, whereas the other songs we had researched did not have lyrics that we thought we could interpret. We settled on the song 'Crazy Love' to look into in more depth. By looking at the lyrics we saw that they could be about a relationship, being in love and just enjoying each others company.


'And when I'm returning from so far away
She gives me some sweet lovin brighten up my day
Yes it makes me righteous, yes it makes me feel whole
Yes it makes me mellow down in to my soul'